This invention relates to an automatic prescription dispensing system and, more particularly, to a system in which prescription data regarding individual prescriptions to be filled are assembled in a computer, which controls automatic pill dispensers to dispense prescriptions into prescription labeled pill bottles.
In mail service pharmacies and large retail pharmacies, prescription drugs are dispensed in a high volume and the work of filling the prescriptions by current methods is labor intensive and expensive. There is a need for an automatic pill dispensing system to carry out the dispensing of the prescription drugs automatically at a rapid rate and to label pill containers which can then be provided to the patient for whom the prescriptions were written.
Automatic pill dispensing systems have been proposed in the past, but the prior systems are slow and fail to deliver filled prescriptions at a rapid rate. Some prior art systems are subject to a problem of cross contamination of the filled prescriptions and some require substantial numbers of personnel to operate the system.